


god, agape, and loudly implied cannibalism (a meta)

by bullroars



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Attempted Murder, Cannibalism, Character Analysis, Gen, M/M, Meta, Murder, Murder Husbands, Religion, Spoilers, Theology
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-09
Updated: 2014-06-09
Packaged: 2018-02-04 01:33:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1761899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bullroars/pseuds/bullroars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>or, <i>hannibal</i> and the religious metastory.  spoiler: the cannibal is god.  if you didn't want me to think that, fuller, you shouldn't have put him on a cross.  </p><p>(a breakdown of this stupid show in as framed by religion, spiritual iconography, and less-than-subtle symbolism.  not explicitly hannigram, but there wasn't a tag for "hannibal/will like god loved adam" so i improvised.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	god, agape, and loudly implied cannibalism (a meta)

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this because i hate myself. just kidding, i wrote this because the spiritual and religious iconography and overtones this season have been literally jumping out and like, hitting in me in the face, and i am forever interested in metanarratives and the way religion shapes our media and our stories, whether we know it or not, and, yeah. 
> 
> not quite hannigram. more of an exploration of their relationship framed by so-called "divine" love, and i really liked that i could tag this thing with "murder, attempted murder, and murder husbands." 
> 
> apologies in advance for any sacrilegious things that i probably say. the analysis of shiva was provided by my cousin, who was raised in hinduism, and i left that discussion more bare than i do the discussion of judeo-christian themes because i do not practice hinduism and i don't want to make assumptions or overstep my boundaries.
> 
> huge shout out to zoe (tumblr user kingsguarded) for the majority of this meta; you are wonderful and your thoughts are wonderful and asdl;kj thank you for freaking out with me post-mizumono none of this would have happened without you. 
> 
> also a big thank you to tumblr users targaryensies and nedstax for their excellent beta job. you rock!
> 
> warnings for strong language and general cannibal-related stuff, you know it goes.

God, _Agape,_ and Loudly Implied Cannibalism (or, on NBC’s _Hannibal_ and Religion)

 

Before we get going, warnings: strong language, casual discussion of murder, assault, emotional and psychological abuse and manipulation, and cannibalism, and images that contain blood, gore, and various bones and viscera.  This meta deals heavily with themes and images present in Judeo-Christian religions, especially in reference to the Christian creation story.  A violent, serial killing cannibal is cast in the role of God, so that’s probably a warning in and of itself.

So about a year ago, a friend and I were talking about fiction and she brought up what’s called a metanarrative, which I’d never heard of before, but which really got me thinking and has pretty much colored my interpretations of media ever since.  (Thanks, Jess.)

A metanarrative is defined as “a grand narrative common to all.”  Wikipedia goes even deeper; a metanarrative is “comprehensive explanation, a narrative _about_ narratives of historical meaning, experience or knowledge, which offers a society legitimation through the anticipated completion of a (as yet unrealized) master idea.”

Metanarratives pop up most often in terms of religion; for example, _The Chronicles of Narnia_ is a series of children’s books about a family of kids that travels to a magical land, fights alongside a magical talking lion, and ultimately takes Narnia through its birth, death, and resurrection into a better Narnia at the end of the last book.  A cute story, except scholars have pointed out—and backed up—that the kids are metaphorical Christians/saints, Narnia is Earth, and the talking lion is Jesus Christ.  Yeah. Metanarratives.

A lot of the stories we see these days are more or less about God.  Religious iconography and overtones—and therefore metanarratives—are really hard to avoid, especially in Western culture.  Even tumblr is saturated with metanarratives.  _True Detective, Supernatural_ \--even, in shades, a variety of _Marvel_ stories.  Everyone wants a divine ending.  Everyone wants to _know,_ even on a pop culture level, that there’s an order to the universe, that everything means something, that no matter how bad it gets, there’s a great and terrible force _somewhere_ out there, pulling the strings.  Everyone including, it seems, cannibals.   

-

1\. God

 

Religious metanarratives, of course, have to start with a god.  _Narnia_ started with Aslan breathing the world into creation, as the Christian God did, as the Hindu god Brahma did, the Aboriginal Baiame, the Efik Abassi, and the Norse Odin.  Without a god(ess) to create the world, there is no world.

I’ve seen a lot of posts on tumblr that say that Hannibal believes he _is_ a god, or something like it.  He’s certainly presented as the god of the narrative—symbolism, allusion, and his uncanny ability to control _everything_ in his favor definitely put him miles ahead of Will, Jack, Freddie, and Alana, at least.

Even the film direction seems to give Hannibal a divine air.  Look at this shit.

He’s framed in gold lighting.  It looks almost like he has a goddamn halo.  Will, in the same scene, is almost erased by the lighting—he doesn’t have a halo.  Light has long been associated with holiness, God, and knowledge; God is light and everything else is utter dark.  In this scene—their discussion after the events of “Ko no Mono”—Hannibal is most definitely the holy one, illuminated, and Will is not. This pattern repeats often.  Hannibal is always well lit (unless he’s in Ripper Mode), always clearly defined, while Will and everyone else are blurry, always in shadow.

This isn’t the only evidence of an intentional Hannibal-as-god message; _Hannibal_ goes even farther and really, vigorously hits you over the head with religious symbolism here: 

Yeah. That’s a crucifixion. That is the most iconic scene in Christianity, the Son of God, a divinity in his own right, on the cross, dying.  The weirdly square blood even completes the image; from Hannibal’s head to the bottom of the cap, there’s an unbroken straight line forming the Roman cross.  (Sadly Hannibal doesn’t die here, and continues to ruin everyone’s lives for another what, even, eight episodes?) 

And, later in the season, we have this:

The wendigo, which has since been used as a symbol for Hannibal (and now Will’s) violent, bestial, people-eating nature, transformed into Shiva, a Hindu god who serves as both destroyer and benefactor, among other things.  In his highest state, Shiva is limitless, enlightened, and omnipresent.

“Ko no Mono” is the only episode, as far as I’ve noticed, that uses religious symbolism outside the Juedo-Christian bent, so we’re not going to talk about it much, but it is important to note that this Shiva imagery appears twice; once here, and first in the graveyard, when Hannibal arranges “Freddie Lounds” into a Shiva-like position for Will and the FBI to find.  In Hannibal’s eyes, then, it can be inferred that Freddie’s “death” is Will’s first true kill—not for self-preservation, not for revenge, but just _because he could._ Therefore, the Shiva imagery can be representative of Hannibal’s benefaction—he’s proud of and pleased with Will, and wants to continue to encourage his violence—and of Will’s own enlightenment, a theme we’re gonna hit later.

Moving back to symbolism: Season Two is rife with images of flowers. The person-tree Hannibal plants for Jack and the FBI is in full bloom; flowers unfurl at his dinner party; he composes music and flowers burst into being.  Most of the season takes place in the wintertime; everything but the space around Hannibal is dead, frozen, and dying.  Hannibal is spring, is new life.  Creation.  He cooks and composes and brings new things into the world.   

In mixing these iconographies, _Hannibal_ is doing everything it can to convince the viewer of its namesake’s creator god status, at least within the narrative.

Most gods, for example, are either omnipresent (all-seeing), omnipotent (all-powerful), or both (completely able to ruin your life in ten minutes).  Hannibal Lecter certainly seems to be all-seeing and all-powerful.  The events of Season One are _completely_ within his control—everything happens under his machinations and manipulations.  He triggers Will Graham’s downward spiral.  He manipulates Abigail Hobbs into dependency.  He subtly alienates Will from all of his friends while turning Jack, Alana, and Team Science away from him.

In Season Two, he almost seems to see Jack and Will’s moves against him before they even happen.  (The last few episodes of Two aside: we’ll get to that.)   He’s able to get Will out of prison, frame Chilton, and deal with all threats to himself even though Will, Bedelia, _and_ Jack (as of “Yakimono”) know/are reasonably sure he’s the Ripper.

Even when “Mizumono’s” clever trap has been set, he’s able to not only escape, but bring down three of his four pursuers (the last of which is Freddie).  There seems to be no limit to his knowledge, cunning, and power.  He is as close to  omnipotence and omnipresence as the show gets.

This isn’t to say that he is literally _a god;_ neither the show nor Hannibal himself seem to think he’s actually a deity; he’s just higher—more enlightened, which we’ll get to—than everyone else, and that makes him the god-type character in this metanarrative. 

(An important distinction—much of _Hannibal_ is swimming in metaphor and poetry.  It’s hard to tell, sometimes, which conversations are taking place in the realm of the fantastic and which have more immediate, grounded, real life implications.

Physically, in the “real world” the show presents, Hannibal Lecter is not a god.  He’s human, and able to be hurt, and completely, totally fallible.  _Conceptually,_ however, if we wanted to swim around in metaphor and let’s be real, we all watch _Hannibal,_ we totally want to swim around in metaphor, he is a god.  He’s the highest power the show has.  The law can’t touch him, the FBI can’t touch him, not even Will with all of his strength and cunning can touch him.

Hannibal is the concept of a god, if that makes sense.  Pretend it does.  Go with it.)

Hannibal does have a pretty serious god complex, of course (self-obsessed, proud, arrogant, believes he is above anyone and everyone.) But Hannibal doesn’t use God as an identity—he uses God as a justification.  More than once, Hannibal brings up God—presumably the Judeo-Christian one, since _Hannibal_ is a Western TV show and Will would probably be most familiar with that one, given that he’s from working class Southern America—to explain away his violent, cannibalistic, serial killing hobbies.

“I collect church collapses,” he says.  If God is so great, good, and kind, “why does He allow churches to fall on his worshippers?”  The answers presented to the viewer are either a) that God is really not great, good, and kind, he must be evil or at the very least indifferent, or b) that God is unknowable, both terrible and great; He giveth and He taketh away, creates and destroys, and that is His nature.

Hannibal wants Will to believe that God—and therefore, Hannibal himself—is the latter.  Both giver and taker.  Not good, not evil, but simply a force of nature, to be awed and feared and revered in equal measure.

For as much as he kills and destroys, Hannibal does create, too.  He gives life.  Randall Tier, Bedelia du Maurier, Will Graham.  His food, his music.  Hannibal is god because he possesses that duality.  Creator/destroyer, beautiful/terrible, giver/taker, not wholly good, not wholly evil. 

(In his mind, at least.  I personally think his is the worst kind of evil—the kind that smiles at you, and pretends it’s helping.) 

-

2\. Adam

 

The second part of a metanarrative is, of course, the creation.  In seven days God created the heavens and the earth, and on the eighth He created man.  Most importantly, He created man in _His own image._ Out of all the creations in the earth and the sea and the sky, man alone was created in the image of God.

God drew the dust from the earth, formed it after Himself, and named him Adam.  He saw that it was good.

Will Graham is by no means the first patient we’ve seen Hannibal turn into something else.  Randall and Mason have both been shown to us, and from Bedelia we know that there are a fuck ton of other mini-monsters running around, all influenced by Hannibal.

But Will is Hannibal’s Adam, Hannibal’s favorite, the only one Hannibal molded into his own image.  Randall Tier took the form of a beast.  Bedelia, we know, was manipulated so she’d stay under Hannibal’s control.  Mason was only good as dog food.  Will, in his dreams, took the form of a wendigo, just like Hannibal.

 

In the Biblical story, Adam walked with, talked with, and understood God.  He did God’s work with gladness in his heart and was rewarded, almost spoiled, even.  God gave Adam anything he wanted.  Dominion over all of God’s other creations, a wife, food to eat, and His divine company.  You know how people always say that parents have a favorite child?  Yeah, Adam was totally God’s.  He loved Adam and humanity so much that Lucifer, the oldest angel and therefore God’s oldest “child,” rebelled out of jealousy.   

It’s true that Hannibal fucks with Will as much as he can.  He delights in turning Will inside out—metaphorically and literally, haha thanks “Mizumono”—and cracking him open and seeing what makes him tick.  But he’s also _incredibly_ indulgent. 

He tolerates more rudeness from Will than he would from anyone else. He gets Will out of prison (yeah, yeah, “Savoureux,” I know).  He gently encourages Will’s murdery habits.  He offers comfort and support, shows Will pieces of himself, and even decides to bring Abigail back into Will’s life and take Will with him on some kind of cannibalistic, blissful transatlantic adventure.

And Will, like Adam, flourishes and grows under Hannibal’s attentions.  We see Season Two Will born out of a combination of Hannibal’s influence—all of the manipulating, the isolation, it was inevitable that Will turn to himself to survive—and his own determination.  Will wanted to get out, wanted to get revenge on Hannibal, and _so he did._ He became a murderer and a willing cannibal and every bit as crafty and clever as Hannibal himself.  He mirrored himself in Hannibal’s image, used his empathy disorder to learn and adapt and evolve and become, and he very nearly won.

He enjoys it, too.  I maintain that Will in his heart is not like Hannibal, but he does enjoy this game.  He enjoys violence.

 

Look at that face.  That’s not the face of a guy who’s conflicted about _anything._ That’s the face of man who does not give a fuck about “right and wrong” anymore.  That’s the face of a guy who’s gonna do _exactly what he thinks he needs to do_ to achieve his goals.  (This is called _instrumental reasoning_ and there’s been a huge uptick of it in our media since 9/11.  Basically, this is the morality code that says “the end justifies the means.”  It’s okay for Will to run around like a mini Hannibal because his ultimate goal is putting Hannibal behind bars.)

 

For Will, I think the reason he’s so enamored with the kind of murderous double life Hannibal leads is _freedom._ Will looks at Hannibal and sees a guy who’s completely, utterly free.

 

All his life, Will’s been shoved in cages.  Trapped inside his own head, in his nightmares, boxed into a classroom, roped into becoming a pet profiler, and then quite literally into a cage.  Will’s never been free to choose what he wants for himself, to pursue his own goals and interests—he’s always the one held captive, always the jailed, never the jailer.

 

Hannibal, with his near-omnipotence (narrative-wise, anyway), kills, dismembers, and eats people on a regular basis, _and he gets away with it._ He doesn’t have any repercussions.  He’s been a prolific, very active serial killer for _years_ without ever being caught.  Miriam Lass came close, but Jack couldn’t even touch him.  Hannibal, to Will, who was caught, convicted, and sentenced for crimes he didn’t even _commit,_ must look pretty damn impressive.  He’s wealthy, cultured, almost universally respected and adored.

He can do whatever he wants, and no one can stop him.

Hannibal’s the one holding the keys, and Will wants that.  He wants to be the jailer for once, wants to be the one to put Hannibal in his place.  He is so willing to kill Randall Tier because he wants a taste.  He wants to know what it feels like, to take not only his own life into his hands but another person’s.  Will wants to know what it feels like to hold the keys. 

And from that desire, as Adam desired to know the nature of good and evil, comes envy.  From envy comes the Fall, and sin, and suffering.

Adam wanted to know the secrets of the tree of life and ate the pomegranate when it was offered to him.  (Don’t pull that “um, it was an apple?” shit with me just don’t there’s no way in hell a religion founded in the Middle East would’ve had an apple more readily available for metaphor than a pomegranate.  Which, interestingly enough, is served in the “last supper” Will and Hannibal share. 

It’s interesting to note that at this point, Hannibal knows Will lied to him and Freddie’s still alive.  I don’t know if the symbolism here is explicity Biblical or more of a Persophone/Hades deal.  An argument can be made for both.)

Adam betrayed God by eating the forbidden fruit.  Will betrayed Hannibal by lying to him, manipulating him.  “I let you know me,” Hannibal says.  “See me.”  Hannibal gave Will knowledge, an offer of friendship, enlightenment, insight, and Will used it to try and trick Hannibal. Will spat on his gift and dared to overreach himself.

Adam was punished with banishment.  God sent Adam away, sent him into a world of pain and suffering, and left him there.

Hannibal punished Will similarly—he cut Will out of his life.  He didn’t take Will with him.  He cut him open, probably fatally wounded Will’s ~empathy daughter~ in front of him, and left him to die with all of his friends.  

If _Hannibal_ is a metanarrative, Hannibal is God and Will is Adam. What, then, does this _mean?_ What’s the “master idea” the story is trying to resolve?

-

3\. _Agape_ Love and Enlightenment

 

I’d imagine that the master narrative _Hannibal’s_ resolving is much the same as that of religion as a whole—specifically _forgiveness, enlightenment,_ and _redemption._

C.S. Lewis, author of _The Chronicles of Narnia_ and many other popular Christian works, wrote that there are four kinds of love present in the Bible (and therefore four kinds of love that would be represented in a metastory; _storge_ (familial love), _philia_ (affection, love for one’s friends), _eros_ (romantic love), and _agape_ love.

All four types of love are certainly present in _Hannibal._ Beverly, Price, and Zeller share philial love.  Hannibal and Alana are romantic partners.  Will and Hannibal—Will especially—feel like Abigial’s fathers and love her that way.

And Hannibal holds _agape_ love—unconditional love—for Will.  In the Bible, _agape_ is the love that God has for His creation.  It’s the love that, instead of condemning sinful, wayward, fallen humanity to death and damnation, sent God’s Son to suffer and die so that humanity might be redeemed and walk with God again.  There aren’t any limits to _agape_ love; it doesn’t matter how many times humans fuck up, how far away from God they go.  He loves them and so he’ll spare them their—in his eyes—deserved punishments.  _Agape_ love is the love that forgives.

Now, before you get started in on me, yeah, I know, Hannibal gutted Will.  Stabbed one friend (sorry, Jack) and saw another shoved out of a window (sidenote: if Alana dies I am done with the show Alana is a gift and her treatment this season was abominable.  Fuller needs to try again and _do better._ ) Cut Abigail’s throat in front of him, and then left both of them to bleed out while he got away.

But look at his _face._

He’s heartbroken.  As much as a man like Hannibal can be, anyway.  He is genuinely upset.  He didn’t want the little game he was playing to end up like this.  He didn’t want to stab Will and cut Abigail’s throat and leave them behind.  He wanted to take them _with him._ “A place has been made for you,” he said.

Hannibal wants Will at his side.

Now, I’m not sold on Hannigram/murder husbands/romantic cannibalistic love, or whatever.  Will’s got too much anger in his heart, I think, and whether Hannibal is capable of _that_ kind of love remains to be seen, but _Hannibal loves Will._ He does.  He loves Will so much that he was absolutely blindsided by his betrayal.  From “Naka-choko” until the end, he loved Will so much he believed everything he said.  He trusted Will.  He’s furious that Will betrayed him, that he showed so many parts of himself to Will in the hopes of creating in his own image, and he punishes Will for it _severely,_ but didn’t God punish the people of Israel?

In the Book of Genesis, God sends Adam and Eve out of Eden.  He brings pain into the world, makes them labor and suffer for their betrayal.  When Cain kills his brother God banishes him, puts a mark on him, and condemns him to wander for all of his days.  He _drowns the whole world._

God is great and terrible in His anger, but He still absolved humanity of its crimes.  He still forgave them, still offered them a way back into the fold.

 

Hannibal holds Will.  He comforts him.  Pets his hair, sets him down.  He doesn’t kill Will outright.  **He doesn’t kill Will outright. _He does not.  Kill Will.  Outrigh_** ** _t._** In the past Hannibal’s default has been killing and eating the rude.  He punishes them, of course, but always invariably sees their lives snuffed out, justice dealt, their offense removed from his sight.

There’s no doubt that, in Hannibal’s eyes, Will has been unspeakably rude.  Hannibal shared things with Will that I don’t think he’s shared with anyone else, not voluntarily. He let Will see his true nature, and he thought Will _cherished_ it—he thought he had finally, finally created a kindred spirit.  A friend.

And then he finds that Will deceived him, tricked him, tried to lure him into a trap like Hannibal was a common trout.  If Will had tried to kill him outright, Hannibal wouldn’t have cared.  He _doesn’t_ —“Mukozuke” showed us that he’s actually rather proud of Will when he tries.

But Will lied to him.  Will used Hannibal and trivialized their relationship.  That should have constituted an immediate death sentence.  If Hannibal didn’t have this kind of unconditional love for Will, I could see Hannibal doing everything he did in “Mizumono,” gutting Will, slashing Abigail, except _leave._  If he didn’t care, didn’t love Will like a creator loves his creation, he would have stayed.  Made sure Will died, that the offense had been corrected, rudeness removed.

He didn’t.  Part of that is probably time constraints, obviously.  He doesn’t know if any of the four people currently dying in his house called the police/EMTs, but it’s likely, and he has to _go._ But the theme of “Mizumono” was forgiveness.

Hannibal _forgave_ Will.  He forgave him his trespasses, and gave him a chance to live.  To survive what he’d done, and maybe someday find Hannibal again.

People, that’s _agape._ To us it seems weird, because Hannibal’s a raging douchebag and deserves every ounce of hurt that’s eventually gonna come his way, but to Hannibal Will committed an unspeakable offense and WAS FORGIVEN.  I don’t think I can stress that enough, like.  Hannibal forgave Will even though his own pride had been hurt, even though his dreams and delusions were shattered.

For a vicious, calculating, unrepentant cannibalistic serial killer, that’s about as close to _love_ as he can get.  Forgiveness, and a chance to survive.

I don’t know yet if Will feels the same kind of _agape_ for Hannibal.  I seriously doubt it, because he loved Abigail.  Beverly, Jack, and Alana were/are his friends.  Hannibal’s done too much to him, and Will doesn’t have the same god delusions that Hannibal does.

But Hannibal definitely, definitely loves Will.  There’s a line in “Shiizakana” that I can’t quite remember and am much too lazy to go dig up, but basically says “love is letting people hurt you,” or something. Hannibal loved Will enough to show him the Cheasapeake Ripper, to show him _Hannibal,_ under all of the masks and pretentions, and who that person-god was.

This kind of love is the driving force behind the show.  More importantly, this love serves as the catalyst for the ultimate goal of any metanarrative; enlightenment.  Metanarratives are crafted to provide small-scale revelations about large-scale topics—religion, politics, whatever—and those revelations become enlightenment, higher thought, often incorporated into the large-scale topics themselves.

Through their evolving, tangled relationship, especially for this last, _agape_ stage (which takes up maybe the last three or four episodes of Season Two), both Hannibal and Will are enlightened.  Truer aspects of their nature are revealed.

Will learns that he’s not only capable of great violence and great danger, he’s also a _survivor._ He’s able to endure what Hannibal does to him.  He’s able to come out of his sickness, his weaknesses and failures, and come out _fighting._ He’s able to weaponize his empathy.  He’s able to go toe to toe with one of the most intelligent, violent men in the show and _almost win._ In Season One, Will’s character was defined by fear.  He was afraid of himself, afraid of Garrett Jacob Hobbs, afraid of the shadows in his head.

From “Mukozuke” to almost the end of “Mizumono” not a trace of that fear can be seen in him.  Will is _confident._ He’s as confident as Adam must have been before he ate that pomegranate, utterly sure of himself and his strength and his power.

Hannibal, in contrast, finds a softer part of himself.  Where Will hardens and grows wilder, Hannibal seems to settle.  He embraces the role of benefactor, seems to revel in Will’s changing nature.  We see him manipulate, of course, and do absolutely horrible things, but we also see moments of gentleness and vulnerability.  Hannibal, because he loves Will so dearly, finds that he can forgive and not be destroyed.

Through this _agape_ love, Hannibal and Will find that they complement each other.  Alana’s line in “Ko no Mono” really, _really_ sticks out to me.  She says that neither Will nor Hannibal alone could be the killer they were looking for, but “together, [they] might be.”  Much of Season Two has been a balancing act, a joining together.  A relationship where both parties grew and learned and _elevated_ themselves.

Through their relationship, Will and Hannibal became something other than what they were.  A repeated theme for these two has been that of truth.  Hannibal and Will—especially Hannibal Lecter, King of Lying Dicks—lied to each other almost from the very beginning of their relationship.  But as the show, and their friendship, deepened, the lies came less and less.  They started telling the truth.

And they _learned._ They became enlightened.  Will learned his own nature, cunning, vicious, strong in ways that he didn’t think were possible.  Hannibal learned that he could forgive.  He could let a rudeness slide.

Because he’s been changed, because his eyes have been opened, Hannibal Lecter makes a conscious decision to walk away from Will Graham.  He doesn’t finish the job.  He lets Will go.

This is paradigm-altering.  For Hannibal it’s like the birth of a new religion.  He’s no longer the untouchable, mighty god.  He’s been hurt.  He’s been bloodied.  He has a weakness.  For Will, too, it’s a christening.  Now, more than ever, he’s Hannibal’s equal and Hannibal’s beloved.  He lost this round, yeah, but now he’s seen Hannibal at his most intimate.  Now he’ll know that he can hold his guts in his hands and _survive._

And, like any new religion accepting sons into the fold, Hannibal and Will are baptized.

Hannibal is baptized in rain—we see him wipe the blood off his face, take Will’s coat from Alana, and leave.  He’ll never be the same, not now that he’s walked away from his best, most beautiful creation.

Will’s baptized in blood.  Christened in it.  (I’m not actually sure how it got on that side of his face, given that in the whole sequence before this shot he’s lying on the left side of his face, but whatever, yay sacrificial symbolism!)  In more ancient religions—even at Christianity’s roots—blood is holy, blood has divine power.  Blood was enough to absolve all of humanity of its sins, to remake it, to give birth to something that, in God’s eyes, was _more._

All religions in the world are concerned with these themes, in some form or another.  Some teach that it’s a person’s actions that redeem them, earn them the forgiveness of their gods.  It’s the active blood sacrifice, the slaughter of one’s own livestock or sometimes even their family, that earns them a little divinity, some knowledge, a blessing.  Redemption, in religious terms, is bought in a lot of ways.

Only Season Three can tell us how Hannibal and Will’s relationship will continue or if a “redemption story” will be attempted.  (Not redemption like “oh Hannibal’s a good guy now,” that’s not gonna happen.  Redemption like reconciliation.)  I don’t think Hannibal’s love will have gone away— _agape,_ by definition, is pretty hard to shake.  Will’s gonna be pissed, and rightfully so, but he’s been inside Hannibal’s head and Hannibal’s heart.  He’s seen more, knows more, than he was ever supposed to, and that gives him both a strange sort of power and weakness.

They have both become enlightened, about themselves and each other.  Will’s taken a step up towards “divinity;” Hannibal’s taken a step down towards humanity.  Sooner or later they’re gonna meet in the middle, and since “Mizumono” was pretty much _Red Dragon_ I can’t say what will happen, only that it will probably contain more puns, some face touching, and hopefully more religious symbolism because I am so about that. 

**Author's Note:**

> if you have anything to add/points of contention, you can leave a comment below or come talk to me at magnetohs.tumblr.com!


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